Taiwan water park fire: Fighting hard to get on road to recovery

PHOTO: Joseph Loy

Every day for the past month, businessman Joseph Loy would cry in a corner at Block 4 of Singapore General Hospital (SGH) while his daughter Megan Loy was fighting for her life in a ward upstairs.

The 18-year-old had suffered severe burns on 80 per cent of her body after a huge fire broke out at a water park in Taipei on June 27.

Around 1,000 revellers had gathered for the annual Colour Play Asia festival, in which coloured powder was thrown on partygoers.

There was a huge blast when the powder caught fire. Ten people have died and 339 more are still being treated in Taiwan.

Her five friends, who suffered 30 to 50 per cent burns, are still hospitalised in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Doctors had earlier said that Miss Loy had a one-in-five chance of survival. But last Tuesday, they revealed that her skin grafts have been successful so far and her burn wounds are reduced to only 5 per cent of her body. "It is a miracle and even the doctors were baffled at the rate of her recovery," Mr Loy, 47, told The Sunday Times.

When Miss Loy was flown back to Singapore on June 30, her prospects for recovery were dismal.

Death from infection was a real danger, so she was put on at least five types of antibiotics.

Doctors were worried that the heavy dosage may tax her kidneys, so she was hooked up to a dialysis machine initially.

Skin cells were taken from her scalp to be grown in a laboratory for future transplant. Over the weeks, she went through nine skin grafts and spent over 50 hours in the operating theatre.

Despite the odds, Miss Loy fought on. By day five, she could breathe without a respirator. On day 10, she left intensive care for the high dependency ward.

But for each step forward, there seemed to be a step back. A blood test revealed the presence of a potential flesh-eating bug, though it turned out to be a false alarm.

"It was such an emotional roller-coaster ride that I don't think I need to go to a theme park in the future," quipped Mr Loy, who put up a brave front for his daughter.

He also has a 15-year-old daughter, Lauren, with his wife, Ms Lim Wee Ping, 47, who works in a bank.

One male witness told local news channel CTI: "It started on the left side of the stage. At the beginning I thought it was part of the special effects of the party but then I realised there was something wrong and people started screaming and running."

"Our initial understanding is this explosion and fire... was caused by the powder spray. It could have been due to the heat of the lights on the stage," said a spokesman for the New Taipei City fire department.

Some nights, she would jolt awake, having dreamt she was in an open field when it became unbearably hot and bright.

She also broke down when she caught a reflection of herself during a video chat with her cousin.

When she asked for a mirror one week after the video chat, her parents braced themselves for a breakdown. Instead, she smiled and remarked that she was looking better.

Miss Loy continues to be on a liquid diet and will wear a pressure garment to protect her newly grafted skin for the year ahead. Rehabilitation and the road to recovery may take up to two years, but she is unfazed. There were times when she woke up at 4.30am to do physiotherapy exercises.

Last week, however, she started asking her parents the dreaded "why me?" question.

Mr Loy recalled: "We said we did not know why it happened to her because we are not God, but we are grateful because each time she needed help, there would be someone." Her samaritans include a partygoer who helped carry her to the ambulance. (See facing report.)

There was also the Singapore doctor who read about Miss Loy's plight in the newspapers and got in touch with a doctor in Taiwan to get her home. Back in Singapore, the medical team worked tirelessly to give her round-the-clock care.